Disasters , The loss of life and property from disaster in 1994 included the following:

Aviation

January 3, Near Irkutsk, Siberia. A TU-154 Russian jetliner with one of its three engines ablaze plowed through farm buildings and power lines before crashing in a field and bursting into flames moments after takeoff; all 120 persons aboard perished, and another fatality was reported on the ground.

January 5, Florida. A twin-engine plane crashed on a rural road in the Orlando area after experiencing engine trouble shortly after takeoff; 10 persons were killed, including a newlywed couple and a number of their relatives.

January 12, Cuzco, Peru. A helicopter with 15 military personnel aboard crashed on the airport runway; all aboard were killed.

February 25, Near Carpish Pass, Peru. The wreckage of a passenger plane carrying 29 persons was discovered in a remote, cloud-shrouded area of the eastern Andes a day after it lost radio contact and disappeared; there were no survivors of the crash.

March 14, Off the coast of Kenya. A U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship carrying weapons to support the international effort in Mogadishu, Somalia, crashed some 20 m (66 ft) from the shoreline; 11 of the 14 crew members aboard were killed.

March 17, Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. An Iranian transport plane carrying the families of diplomats home from Moscow to Tehran to celebrate the Muslim New Year went down in the disputed, heavily Armenian enclave; the craft, which carried 32 persons, mostly women and children, reportedly lost cabin pressure before it crashed, claiming the lives of all aboard.

March 23, Near Novokuznetsk, Siberia. A Russian A-310 Airbus slammed into a snow-covered hillside and exploded after disappearing from radar tracking screens. The pilot, who had apparently turned over the cockpit controls to his teenage son and daughter while he and the co-pilot visited with the passengers, was unable to reach the controls in time to steer the plummeting aircraft out of a fatal nosedive, which resulted in the deaths of all 75 persons aboard the half-empty plane.

March 23, Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina. Two air force planes, one an F-16 Fighting Falcon and the other a C-130 Hercules transport plane, collided in midair when both attempted to land simultaneously; the two fighter pilots ejected to safety and the C-130 cargo plane was able to land safely with its crew, but the F-16 exploded, crashed, skidded down the tarmac in the form of a giant fireball, and slammed into a C-141 Star-Lifter transport plane with hundreds of paratroopers on board. The death toll on the ground was 23, and 85 were badly injured, most of them with severe burns.

April 1, Near Djanet, Alg. A helicopter crashed with 14 persons aboard; there were no survivors.

April 26, Nagoya, Japan. A China Airlines A-300 Airbus crash-landed and exploded on the tarmac shortly after an inexperienced copilot at the controls struggled to land the jet as its computerized controls tried to abort the landing and gain altitude; only 7 of the 271 persons aboard survived the fiery explosion. In early May it was also revealed that the copilot had a blood level of alcohol that was in excess of Japan’s standards for drunken driving.

Late April, West Kalimantan, Indon. A plane crash claimed the lives of 10 persons, but a lone survivor was found crawling through the bush five days later.

May 6/7, Near Kinshasa, Zaire. A twin-engine plane carrying at least nine officials from Zaire, Tunisia, and Uganda crashed in a swamp; besides the various government officials, an unspecified number of passengers were on the flight; apparently all perished.

June 2, Western Scotland. A helicopter carrying high-ranking MI-5 officers and senior members of the special branch of the Royal Ulster Constabulary to a security conference exploded in a fireball before crashing in heavy fog on the tip of the Mull of Kintyre; none of the 29 persons aboard survived.

June 7, Near Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. An Air Ivoire Fokker F-27 crashed on its approach to the capital; 17 persons were killed.

June 18, Near Washington, D.C. A plane carrying Mexican fans to a World Cup soccer match between Mexico and Norway crashed in the woods in heavy fog while making its final approach to Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C.; all 12 persons aboard the aircraft were killed.

July 1, Tidjikya, Mauritania. An Air Mauritania passenger plane crashed while attempting to land during a sandstorm; 94 of the 101 persons aboard lost their lives.

July 2, Charlotte, N.C. A USAir DC-9 jetliner with 57 persons aboard crashed during a thunderstorm while making its approach to the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport; 37 persons were killed despite the pilots’ desperate efforts to reverse the aircraft’s downward spiral. Experts believed that wind shear was a possible cause of the crash.

July 19, Near Colón, Panama. A plane carrying 21 persons exploded and crashed shortly after takeoff; all aboard perished, and investigators were concerned that a bomb may have been aboard the aircraft.

August 5, Bada, Siberia. A Russian military transport plane crashed upon landing at the Bada airport; 47 persons perished.

August 21, Near Agadir, Morocco. A Royal Air Maroc passenger plane crashed in the Atlas Mountains; all 44 persons aboard the aircraft were killed, including 16 foreign tourists and a Kuwaiti prince and his wife. Government allegations that the pilot was suicidal could not be proved.

September 8, Near Aliquippa, Pa. A USAir Boeing 737 inexplicably nose-dived to the ground and exploded while approaching the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, a scheduled stop en route to its final destination in Florida; all 132 persons aboard were killed.

September 26, Near Vanavara, Siberia. A Russian Yak-40 plane carrying 26 persons crashed while preparing for an emergency landing during a storm; there were no survivors.

October 31, Near Roselawn, Ind. A Chicago-bound commuter plane carrying 68 persons crashed and burned in a cornfield after descending from 3,050 m (10,000 ft) to 2,440 m (8,000 ft) during a torrential downpour; no one survived the crash, which investigators believed was probably caused by ice buildup on the aircraft’s wings.

November 1, Off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico. A helicopter carrying 14 persons plunged into the Caribbean Sea shortly after its pilot had reportedly experienced mechanical failure; all aboard were killed.

December 13, Near Morrisville, N.C. A commuter plane crashed in a heavily wooded area while preparing to land at the Raleigh-Durham Airport; of the 20 persons aboard the craft, 15 were killed when the plane plummeted to the ground in fog and rain, apparently after experiencing an engine flameout.

December 29, Near Van, Turkey. An aircraft whose pilot had aborted two landings crashed during a third attempt in a blinding snowstorm; of the 76 persons aboard the aircraft, which was severed into three parts, 54 persons were killed and 22 were injured.

Fires and Explosions

January 16, Tetouan, Morocco. A fire that swept through a steam bath claimed the lives of 24 persons; 15 persons were treated for smoke inhalation.

Mid-February, Yuanshi (Yuan-shih) county, Hubei (Hupeh) province, China. Several crates of firecrackers exploded at a market; 16 persons were killed and 7 were injured in the blast.

March 20, Dhaka, Bangladesh. A gas cylinder belonging to a balloon vendor exploded near a tap where women and children were waiting in line to collect water; more than 18 persons were killed, and 15 were seriously injured.

March 29, Kashmir, India. An explosion tore through an army explosives depot; at least 15 military personnel were killed in the inferno.

March 30, Idil, Sirnak province, Turkey. A passenger minibus traveling on a country road struck a mine planted on a bridge by separatist Kurdish guerrillas; 15 persons were killed, and one was wounded.

Late April, Near Galashki, Russia. An apparent engine defect caused a bus to erupt in flames; at least 31 persons lost their lives, and 27 were injured.

July 1, Vitória, Brazil. A fireworks stall exploded at an outdoor antique market and touched off other fires in adjacent buildings and in cars passing through the marketplace; at least 30 persons were killed, and some 40 were injured.

July 3-10, Southern and eastern Spain. The worst wildfires in 20 years, resulting from extraordinarily dry weather coupled with torrid temperatures, incinerated more than 150,000 ha (370,500 ac) of pine and eucalyptus forest and claimed the lives of 14 firefighters and 7 others.

July 6, Near Glenwood Springs, Colo. A firestorm on Storm King Mountain claimed the lives of 14 of 52 smoke jumpers who were trapped when the relatively contained wildfire exploded into a major conflagration as it was fueled by 80-km/h (50-mph) winds.

July 18, Buenos Aires, Arg. An explosion in a Jewish community centre claimed the lives of nearly 100 persons; authorities believed that a bomb planted by terrorists had triggered the blast.

Mid-August, Seoul, South Korea. A fire swept through a hostess bar; 14 persons were killed.

September 7, Moscow. At least three explosions ripped through a two-story building that housed a sports club, a municipal maintenance office, and the passport division of a neighbouring police station; the unexplained blast killed as many as 10 persons and injured 27.

Early October, Uttar Pradesh, India. An explosion in a fireworks factory claimed the lives of 26 persons and critically injured 27; many of the victims were children.

October 24, Chungju Lake, South Korea. A fire swept through a pleasure boat, and the vessel was engulfed in flames; at least 20 persons were killed, and 12 were missing.

October 26, Bihar, India. A fire that raced through one coach of a train claimed the lives of at least 28 persons.

November 2, Durunkah, Egypt. A raging fire broke out at a fuel-storage complex when torrential rains caused the main bridge to the complex to collapse on an oil depot. Floodwaters spread blazing fuel from the damaged depot on the village; more than 500 persons were killed, and at least 200 homes were incinerated.

November 27, Liaoning (Liao-ning) province, China. A blazing fire swept through a dance hall in Fuxin (Fu-hsin) filled with students from a local technical school; 233 students perished, and only 16 escaped from the structure, which had one small entrance door and small, out-of-reach windows.

November 30, Shantung (Shan-tung) province, China. A raging hotel fire claimed the lives of 38 persons and injured 11; it took nearly 100 firefighters to bring the conflagration under control.

December 8, Karamay (K’o-la-ma-i), Xinjiang Uygur (Sinkiang Uighur) Autonomous Region, China. A movie theatre filled with more than 800 persons, at least 500 of them schoolchildren and their teachers, was engulfed in flames as patrons watched a cultural performance; at least 300 persons, most of them children, lost their lives.

Marine

January 1, Mid-North Atlantic Ocean. A mammoth cargo ship sank during a fierce storm; rescuers found empty life rafts and concluded that all 36 persons aboard the vessel had drowned.

January 15, Near Chimagurhi, India. Two passenger ferries carrying Hindu pilgrims collided in thick fog in the Bay of Bengal; one boat was severed in two, and at least 100 passengers from that vessel were feared drowned.

Late January, South China Sea. An oil tanker with 10 crewmen aboard inexplicably exploded and tore in two; all crew members were feared dead.

February 3, Off the coast of Land’s End, England. A bulk carrier sank during a violent storm packing hurricane-force winds after reporting that it was taking on huge amounts of water through a damaged hold; the 27 crewmen aboard the vessel were lost at sea.

Mid-February, Off the coast of Ramong, Thailand. A boat that may have been overloaded capsized; more than 200 Burmese workers were feared drowned.

February 21, Off the coast of The Bahamas. An overcrowded boat carrying illegal Haitian migrants sank in shark-infested waters; some 24 passengers were feared dead.

March 7, Lake Victoria, Kenya. An overloaded ferry carrying passengers, timber, and corn (maize) capsized and sank during a storm; at least 40 persons were missing and believed drowned.

March 13, Bosporus, Turkey. The collision of an oil tanker and a dry cargo ship in the busy waterway resulted in an oil spill and a raging fire aboard the tanker; at least 17 crewmen were killed, and 16 were missing.

March 20, Off the coast of Masirah, Oman. A supertanker filled with millions of gallons of oil exploded and caught fire at sea; as the vessel with 18 dead crewmen aboard tried to dock, various states refused to allow it into port because of fears of pollution.

March 30, Off the coast of Toulon, France. A submerged French nuclear submarine, powered by a pressurized, water-cooled nuclear reactor, limped back to port after a pipe burst and released superheated steam into the vessel’s turbine compartment; 10 sailors conducting routine inspections were burned to death or asphyxiated.

April 8, Central Philippines. A wooden boat carrying 15 fishermen sank after being swamped by Typhoon Owen; only one person survived.

April 22, Off the coast of al-Basit, Syria. An overloaded fishing boat carrying elementary schoolchildren and teachers capsized; of the 55 persons aboard the vessel, 36 children and 5 teachers perished.

April 29, Off the coast of Mombasa, Kenya. A ferry packed with commuters capsized and sank when panic-stricken upper-deck passengers ran to one side of the boat after the helmsman experienced difficulty steering; at least 272 persons were killed in what was the country’s worst ferry disaster to date.

May 17, Near Libreville, Gabon. A canoe carrying illegal immigrants capsized off the coast during a storm; some 50 persons perished.

May 24, Off the coast of the Dominican Republic. A small boat carrying more than 100 illegal immigrants to Puerto Rico capsized in the Mona Passage; at least 40 persons drowned.

June 12, Off the coast of Somalia. A dhow filled with refugees from Yemen capsized off the northern coast of Somalia; at least 50 persons were feared drowned.

June 20, Off the coast of South Africa. The Chinese tanker Apollo Sea sank off the Cape of Good Hope and produced a massive oil spill near Dassen Island, the breeding grounds of the endangered jackass penguin; 37 crew members were killed, and some 1,600 jackass penguins drowned after being coated with oil.

Early July, Off the coast of Haiti. Hundreds of boats containing some 5,000 Haitian refugees set sail for the U.S.; the massive exodus in overcrowded, rickety boats resulted in the deaths of at least 200 persons in numerous tragedies at sea.

July 9, China. A bus that was being ferried across the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) slid off the boat and plunged into the water; at least 50 persons drowned.

July 13, Off the coast of Havana. A stolen wooden tugboat with 63 refugees aboard sank; the leaking vessel was submerged after a pursuing vessel struck its stern; 31 persons, mostly women and children, drowned.

August 20, Chandpur, Bangladesh. A ferry carrying some 250 passengers overturned in strong currents and was drawn underwater by a whirlpool while it prepared to dock; more than 200 persons were feared drowned.

Early September, Off the coast of Cape Town. An iron-ore carrier, the Iron Antonis, apparently sustained a crack during a storm and sank in the Atlantic Ocean; all 24 crewmen abandoned the vessel and drowned.

September 28, Off the coast of Turku, Fin. The Estonia, a massive passenger-and-car ferry, rapidly sank in the Baltic Sea during a roaring storm accompanied by high winds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph) and choppy seas as high as 10 m (33 ft); the roll-on, roll-off vessel apparently began taking on water when the large hydraulic loading door in the bow was ripped off during the pounding storm. While many of the passengers slept below, the ferry heaved to its port side and sank, stern first, in the chilly (10° C [50° F]) water; of the more than 1,040 passengers believed aboard, only about 140 survived.

October 16, Near Madarbari Island, Bangladesh. A ferry carrying nearly 200 persons, 165 of them members of a wedding party, capsized and sank in choppy waters; more than 100 persons were feared drowned.

November 11, Off the coast of Johore, Malaysia. A small boat packed with Indonesian illegal workers was swamped by waves and capsized; 37 of the 87 persons aboard the craft drowned.

December 2, Near Rosario, Phil. A ferry and a freight tanker collided near the mouth of Manila Bay; 34 persons aboard the ferry were known dead, and 113 were missing and presumed drowned.

December 9, North Atlantic Sea. A Ukrainian cargo ship sank after being battered by huge waves and fierce winds; 2 of the 31 seamen aboard the boat were rescued, but rescuers were unable to save others clinging to life rafts because of the turbulent waters.

Mining and Tunneling

January 24, Heilongjiang (Heilungkiang) province, China. A powerful gas explosion at the Xiji (Hsi-chi) coal mine claimed the lives of 47 miners and left 32 missing and presumed dead.

January 25, West Bengal, India. Lethal carbon monoxide emissions from a fire that was caused by a short circuit killed 55 miners at a coal mine near Asansol.

January 27, Newkenda, India. A fire in a coal mine trapped 55 miners for two days; all perished.

March 6, Jilin (Kirin) province, China. A predawn explosion at the Liaowang coal and gas field claimed the lives of 12 miners.

April, China. Several gas explosions during the first three months of the year reportedly killed at least 700 Chinese coal miners despite the closing in February of some 2,000 mines in Heilongjiang province for safety reasons.